Morels and alcohol

[SteveDodds]

Has anybody else ever gotten sick from combining morel mushrooms and beer? I drank about a six pack last night and ate a bunch of morels for supper. They were awesome. The old lady made them up in a creamy white sauce and then we put that on a piece of toast and ate it. Very yummy. I was the only one drinking. I woke up about midnight feeling terrible. Ran to the bathroom and proceeded to vomit everything in my belly. After that I dry heaved for about 20 minutes straight. I couldn't stop. I was completely out of breath, sweating terribly, and thought I was going to die. At one point I said I needed to go to the hospital. I stopped dry heaving shortly after that and had about a 5 minute break before it started up again. The second time it only lasted about 1 minute. I vomited so much that my throat is shot and I have no voice today. I had such terrible diarrhea that at one point when I was vomiting I actually pooped my pants. I stayed home from work today. Today I feel very lethargic and tired. After doing some research apparently morels and alcohol together is a bad bad combination. Although I find it really hard to believe that I have not mixed them in the past. I used to carry a small cooler with me to keep my beer cold while I was hunting for morels. I for one will no longer be drinking beer with a supper of morels.

Has anybody else experienced this?

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[ivan salis]

alcohol has been long know to make folks lose their "morals" -- ok not funny -- now you know "no booze" with morels --thanks for wizing folks up .

also watch out for "false" morel mushrooms --look carefully where the "cap" attaches at !

[Jeep]

Morels contain toxins and should always be cooked to destroy them.

Alcohol exacerbates the effect of these toxins.

Did you cook the morels thoroughly before adding them to the sauce?

Anyhow now you know firsthand. Enjoy the rest of them or send them to me

[shaun7]

There's no shame in soiling your underwear every so often

Hope you feel better!

[packerbacker]

Sounds like "false" morels to me but it's usually rookies that eat those. Are you new at room pickin'?

[Monty]

If no one else got sick I would think it was one of those 24hr. virus bugs that go around ever so often. Drink lots of liquids and take some Tylenol and you should be better, probably this evening. And to me a six pack is a lot of beer to consume in one evening at least to me. I'm sure I would be pooping my pants among other things if I drank that much beer at one sitting. But then I use to do that myself every now and then before I quit drinking. A fifth of scotch will have the same effect I found out the hard way. M nty

[ivan salis]

getting the beer "squirts" is not that uncommon from drinking a good bit of beer --mixed with morels however -- a six pack of beer is very bad combo ---barf and squirts at the same time -- only one end at time can fit at the toilet --so get a bucket --to barf in as you sit and squirt yer guts out .

life lesson learned? -- do not mix the two items

[SteveDodds]

No they were fully cooked and no I am not a rookie.

The science behind simultaneous alcohol and morel consumption is not driven by me being a rookie or not cooking thoroughly.

http://www.newwest.net/topic/article...aho/C559/L559/

http://www.fungusfun.com/mushrooms/m...e=print&sid=11 In this link it states:
Williams warned, ?Some people have a violent reaction to the combination of alcohol and morels and should not drink alcohol during or after eating the mushrooms.?

http://www.michiganmorels.com/morels1.shtml In this link it states: You should not consume alcohol with large amounts of wild mushrooms either. The alcohol will increase the severity of a reaction should you have one. Occasionally some people, though few, may have a slight reaction even without drinking any alcohol.

http://www.morelmushroom.info/Cooking_Precautions.html In this link it states: Some people are allergic to mushrooms that are safe to eat; if this is your first time eating morels, eat only a small amount and wait 24 hours before consuming more. This may prove quite difficult, as morels are quite delicious! Also, don’t consume any alcohol with your very first ingestion of morels, especially black morels; if you are allergic, this can seriously worsen the reaction. A reaction involving ingesting alcohol with morels “. . .begins with flushing of the neck and face, rapid heart beat, tingling in the extremities, and a metallic taste in the mouth and only later involves nausea, and vomiting.”

http://www.doityourself.com/stry/ger...orel-mushrooms In this link it states: Certain amounts of toxins can still be found in morel mushrooms even after they have been cooked. This can be avoided more easily if you do not consume alcohol with these mushrooms.

Shall I continue? I have even tried growing my own with limited success. Please don't assume I am a newbie that doesn't know what the hell I am doing.

[ivan salis]

no insult --folks are just trying to help you ( like me) * and have no means of knowing your experance level -- thus the "false" morel warnings and such --heck even being experanced did not protect you from the mixture of the two * there lots of knowledge out there --and folks have no ideal of what you do or do not know --so they error to the side of caution and go --knows less .

[packerbacker]

Didn't mean for the term "rookie" to sound negative. Was just wondering how experienced you were. I never heard of the alcohol/mushroom thing. Can't say as I've ever had a large qty. of mushrooms and beer at the same so I don't know if it effects me that way or not. Hope you get better and stay that way.

[shaun7]

Sorry to have made light of what was obviously a very traumatic experience

Hope they weren't you're good pants!

[SteveDodds]

No it was only my undies.

Like I said in my first post, I find it hard to believe that I have not mixed the two sometime in the past.

Why do you suppose that this time I got sick from it?

That is why I am posting about this to see if anyone else has had this experience and to warn others of the effects from mixing shrooms and booze.

Shrooms and Booze Make Unhappy Dudes .

[WindHarvester]

Sounds like "false" morels to me but it's usually rookies that eat those. Are you new at room pickin'?

I agree PB, sounds to me like false morel's. I have heard of people that could eat false and be fine. I have also heard of people becoming allergic to them even if they had ate them many times before.

I don't think I have ever eaten them without a cold beer to wash them down.

Was you drinking cheap beer? If so what kind? So I can stay away from it. I have had some nasty beer that made me feel that way.

[SteveDodds]

It was far from nasty beer. It was homebrew made by me. It was an English brown ale. If it was false morels then why was the rest of my family ok? My brother, my wife, and one of my two kids all ate the same thing I did. And in my eyes someone would have to be pretty dumb to confuse real morels with false morels. Has any of you even seen false morels in the wild? I have been collecting and eating shrooms since I was old enough to walk and my parents would take me with them. I gather and consume all sorts of mushrooms. In fact the oyster mushroom is my favorite. I love finding a nice batch of oyster mushrooms. They smell and taste just like fish. I have collected and eaten, shaggy manes, sulfur shelfs, coral mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, giant puffballs, hen of the woods, and the very occasional bolette. When I was young I even brought home a woody polypore. Needless to say my parents didn't cook it for me

Up until this morning I had never heard of getting sick when combining booze with shrooms but I can guarantee that I will never do that again. If I am gonna drink when I collect I guess I will have to wait to eat them.

[Jeep]

Ehhh, sometimes it happens, I learned in the army that beer and cold pork patties don't mix

At least you didn't have as bad a reaction as this dude:

[Monty]

Ill just stick to toad stools after reading this...... gasp, gurggle...Mo ..........nty

[SteveDodds]

I am still home from work. My gut hurts.

[shaun7]

Have you pulled muscles throwing up, or is it still not settled?

[comfortablynumb]

Homebrew? Hmmm, something might not be right with your batch of brew. Yeast and spores can do nasty things to the digestive system!!!

Hope you get to feeling better.

[bigwater]

If it was false morels then why was the rest of my family ok? My brother, my wife, and one of my two kids all ate the same thing I did.

All it takes is one bad one in the batch, and whoever gets it gets sick. I'm not discounting the morel-alcohol combination causing it, I'm just contemplating the possibility that you ate a toxic mushroom that nobody else ate. It could have even been a real morel. One slice could have gotten lost behind the cutting board, found, and thrown in at the last second so that it didn't get cooked enough. Who knows? The possibility is there.